All-Star Dangers Of Cheerlebrity

[BuegeSmalls]

I think it's the fans that really need to check themselves...

Agreed! I'm sorry but if you tweet "OMG *insert cheerleb here* JUST RETWEETED ME! BRB, DYING!!! #bestdayever" then I am judging you. I understand that you are excited that your favorite athlete retweeted you, but really?

BTW, congrats on your Worlds bid! Just assuming your on Firestorm or Fury because both people in your pic are wearing the crop tops :)

 

[kaylalalaxo]

Like many of you have said, I cannot believe the increase in 'cheerlebrity' status over the years. When kids go to a comp, they shouldn't worry about how many autographs, pictures, or whatever they have to go through that day...a competition day, is a day (imo) to focus on you and your team, and only that before the performance. Like Kris10boo said BlueCat I am more than impressed how your athletes handle situations like this, it reflects the CA family very well. (I am just using them as an example, other programs such as CEA, WC, Md Twisters, and others also has wonderful athletes that represent them) I think the real problem, is the tweens and teens that make it worse than it should be. Parents of the girls/guys running and following cheerlebs around and practically stalking them need to take action and sit them down, talk to them, saying that an autograph/picture is ok, but let them be after that. Point blank period.

 

[UCFKnights07]

I think it's the fans that really need to check themselves. Being talented, looking good, or being on a certain team shouldn't automatically put you in the spotlight to get obsessed over.

in all honesty the fans are really the only problem, ive never really seen or heard of other allstar cheerleaders go up to these cheerlebrities like a crazy person, yes maybe a few show excitement, but nothing crossing the line. i could be wrong though, the only real allstar competitions ive been to over the years are worlds, and nca nationals.

 

[cheerisloving]

To say they brought it on themselves is a bit much. These are teenagers, who have lives outside of the gym. Do they have to lose out on their childhood because there are people who are obsessed with them? Their team won Worlds, so know they can't have social networks because it will get out of hand? Sometimes, it's just the uniform. Then there are the Kelsey's and Kiara's, who are really talented, pretty, and on notable teams, who are picked for opportunities like Varsity and GK modeling. Is it wrong that they are getting attention, if all they are doing is what they love? They have to sacrifice blessings because of others feelings?

Honestly the one team that's so low profile, is F5 and other Twisters teams. I thought after their win in 2011 it would change, but honestly it's like people know who they are, and want to take pictures, but there isn't huge scandals about Kelcie falling or anything like that.

I personally thought it would've been awkward to go up to Maison Baker last year at Battle at the Capitol, because I don't know her outside of what goes on the mat for 2:30....

 

[notyourcheermom]

If our girls stalked an athlete from another program, especially at a comp, if their coach mentioned something to our coach even just the barest of hints that there might have been an issue, it would not happen again.

Hopefully coaches from other programs that are at same comp see all this mess tonight and are texting their team moms to get the word out to act right.

 

[BlueCat]

After seeing how they treated Matt tonight really opened my eyes. I don't think he minded pics as well as the other girls..
But when they are practicing/ warming up/ watching their other teams people should respect their time and space.

They should not follow or chase (physically running) after someone trying to get away. He was very nice to every girl he came in contact with when I was around and he handled it wonderfully.

I applaud your athletes because they all were very well mannered. Some CA parents sat directly behind us and were very polite as well! I can see exactly why CA has grown into the program it has! Hope it's better tomorrow for those athletes and teams!

We make mistakes in how we handle things at times and we are constantly learning. This whole thing really is putting us at a loss. There just doesn't seem to be an easy way to handle it without making people resent the team and/or the program even more than they do.


Today, we actually took athletes after their performances and snuck them out a side door to a waiting car. It seemed so ridiculous, but we were legitimately worried for their safety. Meanwhile, some of the most talented, sweet, beautiful athletes on some of the best teams in the world (SOT, WE, Pro Spirit, Champion, etc) were walking around getting practically no attention whatsoever. There seems to be nothing fair or logical about the situation.

 

[WisconsinIsFierce]

Agreed! I'm sorry but if you tweet "OMG *insert cheerleb here* JUST RETWEETED ME! BRB, DYING!!! #bestdayever" then I am judging you. I understand that you are excited that your favorite athlete retweeted you, but really?

BTW, congrats on your Worlds bid! Just assuming your on Firestorm or Fury because both people in your pic are wearing the crop tops :)

Exactly!

And thank you so much! Yes I'm on FS we are thrilled!

 

[fierceprincess]

in all honesty the fans are really the only problem, ive never really seen or heard of other allstar cheerleaders go up to these cheerlebrities like a crazy person, yes maybe a few show excitement, but nothing crossing the line. i could be wrong though, the only real allstar competitions ive been to over the years are worlds, and nca nationals.

I've been followed to the bathroom before because I'm friends with a certain "cheerleb" and apparently that means if you follow me enough you will eventually meet said "cheerleb".....That being said, I don't think I have ever had a conversation with this person at a competition without it being interrupted by a fan wanting a picture/autograph/etc. We even went to the trouble of sitting in the nosebleed seats on the side of the arena at NCA that is basically back stage. It lasted about 10 minutes and then someone recognized the uniforms we were wearing, came to our seats, took a picture, and then tweeted said picture and where we were. We were together all day, barely managed to speak to one another, and never had enough time for us to take a picture together. The day after NCA was over I remember receiving a text saying, "I was looking for our picture together to make my wallpaper.....but we never took one because of all the fans" To me, it just creates a struggle to hang out with my friends. That's my perspective to the situation, as a close friend of a "cheerlebrity". I've also seen people come to my warm-ups and ask certain people for pictures, autographs, etc. WARM UPS. Seriously? That's really what irks me the most. Warm-ups is a time for the team and to concentrate on our routine. Not take pictures. JMO.

Not trying to direct this towards you. I meant to answer with a few sentences and ended up ranting. Oops.

 

[UCFKnights07]

I've been followed to the bathroom before because I'm friends with a certain "cheerleb" and apparently that means if you follow me enough you will eventually meet said "cheerleb".....That being said, I don't think I have ever had a conversation with this person at a competition without it being interrupted by a fan wanting a picture/autograph/etc. We even went to the trouble of sitting in the nosebleed seats on the side of the arena at NCA that is basically back stage. It lasted about 10 minutes and then someone recognized the uniforms we were wearing, came to our seats, took a picture, and then tweeted said picture and where we were. We were together all day, barely managed to speak to one another, and never had enough time for us to take a picture together. The day after NCA was over I remember receiving a text saying, "I was looking for our picture together to make my wallpaper.....but we never took one because of all the fans" To me, it just creates a struggle to hang out with my friends. That's my perspective to the situation, as a close friend of a "cheerlebrity". I've also seen people come to my warm-ups and ask certain people for pictures, autographs, etc. WARM UPS. Seriously? That's really what irks me the most. Warm-ups is a time for the team and to concentrate on our routine. Not take pictures. JMO.

Not trying to direct this towards you. I meant to answer with a few sentences and ended up ranting. Oops.

no harm done, like i said in one of my previous post before, i dont think i would ever act this way if i did run into one of them at a comp, but maybe thats cause im over 21 and an adult, i still love following allstar cheer though did it when i was in high school too. i think the only good thing when it comes to the whole cheerlebrity thing is that once they graduate and go to college most if not all complete forget about them, not trying to come off as mean but at least they can go back to normal life, so it doesnt last forever.

 

[L5cheermom]

Yeah, let's do discuss the parents. That was rediculous of that one parent to encourage her daughter to chase an athlete after he had already said "No". How incredibly rude. I remember last year at Worlds my daughter - wanted to go see Gabi Butler. I made sure that she left her alone until AFTER she had competed and we were at the outdoor awards dying in the heat, but that's another story. Haha! Anyway, parents have some respect for yourself and these kids. They are at these competitions to do a job. As an aside, I also encourage her to ask other team members for pics. You never know who might be the next Gabi or Cami or Matt.

 

[Emily]

What really disturbs me about the cheerlebrity-thing is how some parents handle this.
I recently read a post, where a parent complained that cheerlebrity X was so rude because she didn't want to take a picture with her cp at a competition, but the cheerlebrity Y she wrote this to was so nice and took time to not only take a picture with her cp, but also talked to her for a couple of minutes.
And I was like "what?" - you're calling out an underaged-cheerleader who was at a competition and didn't take a pic with your cp? Did it occur to you that this cheerleader might have had something else to do at that time (meet with her team, go to the bathroom, eat something, spend time with the teammates/family, go to warmups, or anything like that)?
My guess is that this is not the only parent that acts this way - and therefore enforces the stalking and running after cheerlebrities at competitions.

I'm really really glad we don't have this cheerlebrity phenomenon here in Germany. There are some cheerleaders better known than others, but I haven't witnessed how others followed them around. But then: I don't know about lots of twitter users here, and instagram is mainly used to post pictures to facebook.

Oh, and when I look at how many pictures of cheerlebrities are posted after a competition weekend I always ask myself when did those kids have time to compete inbetween?

 

[HeatUniqueJ]

What disturbs me the most is that there are still some kids out there who desperately want to be a Cheerlebrity..there are a few Girls on Instagram who are part of smaller gyms Level 5 Teams and are desperately seeking for Fans. I wonder how much they will enjoy it once it gets to the point some of the kids from CA are at right now without even wanting it .

 

[crazyredhead]

I for one have always hated the cheerleb thing. Mostly because of the countless extremely talented athletes who go un-noticed while cheerleader B with abs and a perfect poof gets all the praise. I think the "cheerlebs" who put themselves out there have to expect this attention after all its all the followers aka twitter, instagram etc.

 

[crazyredhead]

What disturbs me the most is that there are still some kids out there who desperately want to be a Cheerlebrity..there are a few Girls on Instagram who are part of smaller gyms Level 5 Teams and are desperately seeking for Fans. I wonder how much they will enjoy it once it gets to the point some of the kids from CA are at right now without even wanting it .

I think you can avoid this. If you dont want cheerlebrity status dont chase it. My prime example is always Amanda G. Amazing athlete, shuns the spotlight does her thing, gets the praise isnt listed as cheerlebrity. So Im almost positive if its unwanted it can be avoided. IMO

 

[THEJOEL]

This might seem silly but I have seen the potential for this for a while (ever since I was randomly approached in the cheersport warmup room for an autograph... which was odd).

CA just tweeted about a couple people being a little too enthusiastic.. to the point of the athletes possibly being in danger. I can't say its really surprising. So many tweens/teens now with internet and twitter can follow a cheerleader like they would follow their favorite sports star. Only they can go to an event and compete against their favorite sports star (and see them in the wamrup room and what not). My interaction with cheerlebrities has been... they are just people. However cheerleading does celebrate bigger than life personas and the 'myth', as you will, can be a lot bigger than the person. Does the cheerlebrity thing self perpetuate a sort of mini paparazzi / screaming fandom?

This may sound stupid BUT.....What do the athletes like Gabi Butler, kiara Knowlin, etc. get out of this?
I mean they are all under 18 and there are no million dollar contracts or a pro league for cheerleading. Is the best they can hope for is a college scholarship and a gig modeling Infinity shoes? I am a cheer dad and I don't think my CP will be the next Maddie but why would you do this or let your CP do this. What's in it for them?